Jesus' Seventh Sign Jesus Raised From the Dead John 20:1-18
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Today we are on our seventh sermon in the series called The Seven Signs of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
As I have mentioned before that John used seven signs very intentionally.
Seven signs were used throughout Scripture to represent perfection or completeness.
The signs John chose by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was to prove that Jesus is the Son of God and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
John knew that Jesus was the completion of the law, so the seven signs communicated his knowing that Jesus is the anointed one that Israel has longed to see.
John 20:30–31 (ESV)
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Each one of these signs helps establish a deeper faith for believers already in Christ, and helps non-believers to come to know Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the World.
Each one of these seven signs that John describes signify something greater than just the sign itself as we will again study and unpack in this series.
The first sign of turning water into wine symbolized that at Jesus’ coming a new covenant has begun.
The ceremony pots that Jesus used could only bring temporary cleansing but the water turned into the wine by those ceremony pots showed this new wine would bring an eternal cleansing.
The second sign of healing the Official’s son demonstrated the power in the Word.
At the spoken Word of Jesus the Official’s son received his healing.
The third sign of Healing the paralyzed man who had lived 38 years without the ability to walk was to show again,
at the spoken Word of Jesus healing takes place.
The third sign was done on the Sabbath, which showed that Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath and that He places people’s needs in front of rituals and ceremonies.
The fourth sign of feeding the 5,000 men, which could of easily been more than 10,000 plus, demonstrated Jesus’ power to supernaturally provide natural food.
But Jesus highlights that this food is temporary.
Jesus pointed to the fact that He is the “bread of life” and whoever comes to Him will be sustained forever.
Jesus’ fifth sign of healing the man born blind highlighted the fact the Jesus is light.
The man saw nothing but darkness for 38 years until Jesus touches him and he is able for the first time to see the light.
The man born blind was to show the works of God through his situation as his eyes were opened and he sees the light
Jesus is the light of the world and those who follow Him walk in the light of life.
Jesus’ sixth sign of raising Lazarus from the dead was evidence of Jesus’ life giving power.
That though Lazarus was dead for four days that the impossible was made possible by the power of Jesus Christ.
This sign of raising Lazarus from the dead pointed to the final sign in John which is the climax of the Gospel.
Jesus went to the cross to carry out the mission of the Father as He would lay down his life for the worlds sin.
The spotless lamb was sacrificed for the sins of the world as Jesus shed his blood for you and me.
The essence of the Gospel can be shared in one verse from John...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We pick up in John 20 after Jesus has already accomplished the mission of the Father by dying on the cross and shedding his blood for us.
Before we unpack the seventh sign of Jesus’ resurrection let us turn to the Lord in prayer.
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Still dark
Mary comes to the tomb while it is still dark.
She see’s the tomb is empty and immediately runs to the disciples because she interprets the sign of Jesus not being at the tomb as someone has taken His body.
Remember Mary comes to the tomb while it is still dark. (V1)
It’s important to note the significance of her coming while it is still dark.
How many know that those who walk in darkness misinterpret signs of God.
The reason they misinterpret the signs is because they are still seeing while it is still dark.
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
People can see God’s work all around them and miss His glory because they still have blinders on.
Everyone here knows that not one person can see in the dark.
When your in the dark you may see shadows but even then you can easily misinterpret shadows.
I remember I was in the deer stand one night and of course there is usually the most activity at dusk into night.
This particular night there were a few does around me and I did not want to spook them coming down.
I knew if I waited a few minutes they should be gone and I could get out of my stand with no issues and head back to the house.
I waited a good 15 minutes and it was very dark at this point but I kept hearing movement in the brush.
I was like wow it sounds like a good 5 or 6 more deer have come in by my stand.
I waited another 5 minutes and I am thinking I am never going to get out of this stand without spooking these deer which I knew would affect future hunts and I did not want that to happen.
Finally a few more minutes after that, we are up to about 20 to 25 minutes in the stand while it is pitch black outside I see these huge shadows coming by my stand.
I was like these are not deer!
The more intently I looked the bigger this thing got and I knew there was some bear on this property so I am like great now what am I going to do.
What got my heart really pumping is when the shadow looked to be climbing the tree that my stand was in and I am like forget worrying about spooking anything.
I shined my flash light down and here it was no bear but rather it was a raccoon.
It was the biggest raccoon I had ever seen in my life and he had around 4 friends with him.
The reality was it was so dark that I misinterpreted what was happening around me.
Once I used my light to shine down and see what was happening there was no problem to see what the situation was.
So when Mary comes to the tomb while it is still dark she see’s a sign that may seem clear to us because we already know the outcome.
But for Mary it is still fuzzy when she sees the sign because it is still dark.
So Mary runs to Peter and John to explain what has happened.
Mary tells them V 2b
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Mary is devastated because Jesus has been stolen and she is not sure where He could be now.
So Peter and John immediately run to go investigate what has happened.
I love how John describes himself as “the one whom Jesus loved”
And not only that but John describes Peter and himself running together and how he outran Peter getting to the tomb.
I wonder if Peter and John were a little competitive with one another?
Anyway, both disciples get to the tomb and they see the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth that was on Jesus’ head folded up by itself.
At this point Peter and John see the light turn on.
2. Now Light
8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.
When you see the light you no longer see things the way you once did.
You now see things clearly and understand the meaning of life.
When you are in darkness you stumble around trying to find out the truth, but once you encounter the light of Jesus Christ you will never see things the same because now you see things clearly.
Though Jesus’ prophecies, what must take place with His death and resurrection, the disciples missed it.
Even though the sixth sign before this with Lazarus being raised from the dead, which
pointed to the final sign in John of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead,
the disciples still missed it in the moment.
Lazarus echoed this reality that Jesus has power to bring life to the dead.
But the big difference of Lazarus resurrection and Jesus resurrection was that Lazarus came back into the same mortal body and would taste death again.
Whereas Jesus returned into His gloried body and defeated the sting of death.
N. T. Wright states,
“When Jesus raised Lazarus, Lazarus returned to the present life. He came back again. The echoes of the Lazarus story in the present one are there partly to tell us that it was the same kind of event, but mostly to tell us that it wasn’t. Lazarus needed someone to untie him from his cloths, and the napkin round his head. Jesus left his behind altogether. Lazarus came back into a world where death threats still mattered (12:10). Jesus had gone on, through death and out into a new world, a new creation, a new life beyond, where death itself had been defeated and life, sheer life, life in all its fullness, could begin at last.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The climax of John’s Gospel account of Jesus shouts loud and clear that the death has been denied as the tomb lay empty.
The seventh sign of John shows us that at Jesus coming, the signs he performs, His death, and now resurrection gives us evidence that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior of the world.
Jesus is the Son of God who was there at the beginning of creation.
Jesus is the fulfillment to what the prophets of old had said would come in this new Messiah.
Jesus has come into the world and brought light so that we may see the realities of truth and goodness.
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
This seventh sign gives us the knowing that there is life in His name.
The name of Jesus brings life and light into our lives as we experience His love and goodness.
As we have unpacked these 7 signs from the book of John, we have seen John give important truths of the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.
All the signs have pointed to the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus performed signs because of His love for the people.
Jesus’ heart of love and desire to do the Father’s will was at the front of His earthly ministry.
John captured the signs of Jesus to prove that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that there is salvation for those who trust in Him.
The climax of the signs is Jesus’ own resurrection and we need to ask for us today, are we living ours lives in light of the resurrection or are we living our lives like it is still dark.
If we conduct ourselves like it is still dark, we will misinterpret what God is doing because we are still in the dark.
Whereas if we conduct ourselves in light of knowing that the tomb is empty we will live like children of the light.
I close with this...
I challenge each one here this morning to ask yourself if you are living as if it were still dark
or
are you living a life knowing that the light has come and see the truth of the Gospel.